Yesterday I popped up to the shops to buy a bottle of Captain Morgan’s spiced rum – a sustaining addition to a matutinal espresso.
A lady, I am being generous, was in a protracted dispute over the price of some item of trashy food and I, instead of twiddling my thumbs, made two impulse purchases.
I think the picture is of Golden Hill in Shaftesbury. Country Life cannot cater only for readers ready to cough up at least 5 million for dreamy properties. It’s pure property porn. But it’s high-end prop-porn. There’s something for sale in Montecito, California, if you want to rub shoulders with Harry and Megan. To digress, a friend was shopping in Waitrose and noticed that one of the two men in front of her in the queue – both wearing baseball caps – seemed familiar. Yes it was Harry, the other guy his protection.
To cut to the chase, Country Life is irrelevant except to leave on a coffee table, whatever that is. We can all make what we want of our lives. Michael Gove, Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner are role models in politics. The problem is there are not enough people like them. “Levelling up” promoted by politicians seems to me about chucking money down. Everyone can level up and many privileged, rich folk have proved themselves good at levelling down – a disgrace to their class, if that term is allowed.
We are watching The Big Country with considerable enjoyment, although I was nonplussed when Robert asked “who is Charlton Heston?”. If you like a good romantic film and your beloved, other half wants a scary horror movie, I have just the thing for you. Bones and All combines the genres. It won a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival this year. I have not seen it yet so don’t blame me if it disappoints but I like to imagine it is in the same genre as An American Werewolf in London. Sorry to be a nerd but I thought you’d like to know it is Tottenham Court tube station and while I’m being nerdy, Mansion House is the only Zone 1 station that has every vowel.
May I put in a word for the magazine? Country Life still has good content sandwiched between the property ads and the property editorial. There are articles on architecture, regular columns on rural affairs and the arts, gardening articles, a bridge column, “diaries” by one of their columnists each week, and regular reviews of books, music, theater, exhibitions, and dance. One of its glories is the regular column on the art market by the wonderfully erudite Huon Mallalieu, who always seems to find something interesting, often accompanied by a fascinating, discursive anecdote. And the children like the comic in the back.
It is a remarkable survivor — especially considering it is now owned by a media conglomerate: “Future’s portfolio of brands skews heavily into technology and gaming, including TechRadar, PC Gamer . . .” (wiki). Sorry for the advertisement here, but please soften your heart for subscribers in the remote hinterlands. One hopes CL manages to continue to pull in enough property porn ads and subscriptions to keep the rest going.
Completely agree with the previous comment.The leaders ,if that’s what they are called,on farming, art and architecture have real bite.They do not spare the Government of the day.Much better than some partisan newspaper editorials who seem to keep to the same old party line.Sometimes there is a bit too much ,Lifestyle ,but what the hell. I still look forward to it
Have to agree with both previous comments. & Joe Gibbs writing this week about the Lovelorn Laird, conger eel & pug escapade was just comedy gold. Worth a years subscription alone!